Student Example Exploratory Essay

Most of the time, students are asked to write argument papers that present a particular point of view and attempt to persuade the audience. Sometimes that makes this writing assignment seem confusing. Here is the difference between this assignment and an argument paper:

Argument Essays focus on proving one point of view: An argument or position essay seeks to come to a conclusion and convince the audience which side of the issue is correct. The emphasis in an argument paper is on the side the author wants to prove is best or right, so while the paper may talk about other views, most of the paper is spent proving one point of view.

Exploratory essays look at several points of view in a neutral way. Rather than trying to solve the problem, this sort of paper explores the different perspectives of the problem and seeks to understand the cultural and social context of the issue. It is the sort of paper you would write before writing a solution paper. An exploratory paper is common in businesses when they are attempting to find a solution to a problem and need to get all of the possible perspectives and information available.

Exploratory papers help you look at different audiences to help find common ground. This paper also explores the different audiences or groups of people who are concerned about this issue, giving their different viewpoints on the cause, effects, and solutions proposed. In order to do this paper, you may want to narrow the issue you are thinking about so that you can cover the idea more effectively.

Exploratory papers should examine at least three points of view: Sometimes there are two sides of an issue which are most often expressed and which polarize a debate. In an exploratory paper, you are asked to look beyond the obvious answers in order to find other points of view which can sometimes help in solving the problem. For example, in looking at the issue of illegal immigration, you can examine the conservative and liberal political views, but you can also look at the viewpoint of the illegal immigrants themselves, the viewpoint of the government that the illegal immigrants come from, and the viewpoints of the people who live on both sides of the border where illegal immigrants cross. You might also consider the viewpoint of the border patrol employees.

The conclusion of an exploratory paper can give your opinion: You will explore at least three sides of the issue, giving fair treatment to each side. However, in the conclusion of the paper, you will indicate your own position and why you are persuaded in that direction.

Equality of Possibilities

It is often said that in a democratic society every individual should have rights and possibilities that are equal to the rights and possibilities all the other people have. But what does it actually mean and in what sense is it supposed to be brought into life?

According to the position of leftish thinkers, this principle presupposes the government’s intrusion into people’s life – if there is no such intrusion, the equality isn’t supported. In their opinion, this concept means that every person should have equal possibility irrespective of all the other aspects of his and others’ lives. He may come from any kind of family, receive any education, but still be eligible for the same things that a person who came from a completely different background and was brought up in a completely different way is.

But is it logical? As the experience suggests us – no. We all know very well that people are not equal in the sense that lies as a cornerstone of this belief. Even immediately after birth people already differ. Some are mentally or physically deficient – the others are not. Some grow up to become healthy and beautiful – the others grow up to become sick and plain, and their personal choices have nothing to do with it. The longer they live, the greater the gap between the members of different social groups is.

But the idea I mentioned above kind of presupposes that a factory worker who can barely read and write should be eligible for the same job, living, and payment conditions as, for example, the man who has made a project and built the factory he works for. We don’t speak about justice; we speak about logic, and, after all, is justice supposed to be illogical?

What kind of equality there may be between these two people? They are not equal physically, they are not equal intellectually, the worker cannot replace the owner, but can be replaced by any other worker, for he doesn’t bring anything individual in his work. What is equal about them?

They are the same only in one sense, as it was, for example, pointed out in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. They are equal in what concerns the law. If any of them commits a crime, he will be as guilty of it as the other would be in the same circumstances. And only in this sense.

In order to find out how to write exploratory essay – view our Exploratory essay section.

If you want to get better idea of what the peculiarities of writing in this subject field are, feel free to consult our Social sciences section.